Country’s Atkins finds his focus

By John Benson

It’s been quite a few exciting — albeit unexpected — years for country singer-songwriter Rodney Atkins. After his 2003 debut, “Honesty,” barely made a blip on the country music charts, the Tennessee native didn’t know what to expect for his 2006 follow-up, “If You’re Going Through Hell.”

While in theory every artist releasing an album should believe platinum status with four No. 1 singles is a possibility, that’s the reality Atkins enjoyed with “If You’re Going Through Hell.” The CD yielded chart-toppers “If You’re Going Through Hell [Before the Devil Even Knows],” “Watching You,” “These Are My People” and “Cleaning This Gun [Come On In Boy].”

“I think with ‘Honesty,’ it was a good album but it’s different and all over the map,” said Atkins, calling from somewhere in Colorado. “It’s not anything bad, but there’s not a line or thread running through it. And with ‘If You’re Going Through Hell,’ I wound up really thinking, ‘OK, this is your shot here. If you’re going to make an album and you’ve got something to say — which is why you’ve moved to Nashville to do this — what is it you want to say?’

“So I think that was the approach of ‘Hell;’ it had consistency to it and it made sense from top to bottom. You can hear that album and know who I was. I think a lot of times, like with ‘Honesty,’ there are great albums out there that have hits but you don’t have any idea who that person is.”

When it came time for Atkins to begin work on his new album, which is due out in May, he said self-discovery was the tool he embraced for writing the material. However, early on he couldn’t find the right voice or mind-set to fit his mood. It wasn’t until one hectic day when he took a timeout from the music industry pressure to spend time with his 5-year-old boy down by the creek in his backyard that the creative inspiration became apparent.

“It was one of those days when I was thinking about all of the stuff I needed to take care of — the phone calls I needed to return being an artist and just doing business,” Atkins said. “So I’m sitting there watching my boy laugh and play, getting soaking wet chasing tadpoles, and I forgot everything. And it just hit me, ‘You know, it’s the simple things that strum my strings.’ That’s what matters. That’s what you have to focus on.

“It just kind of brought me down to earth. I think that song was sort of therapy through all of that time of getting back to the basics. That’s really what this whole album is about or the things that I think really matters. So for this album we’re not getting away from anything we did on ‘Hell,’ even though there are some different kind of songs.”

Fans attending Atkins’ return to Cleveland — he said he cherishes his memory of singing the National Anthem at a Cleveland Indians game a few years ago at Jacobs Field — tonight at the House of Blues can expect to hear new upbeat tracks including “Simple Things,” “Best Things” and current single “It’s America.”

When Atkins thinks about what kind of artist he wants to be remembered as decades from now, his answer may take some folks by surprise. He said the ’70s work of rocker Steve Miller comes to mind.

“I love how his stuff just has power, but it’s sort of stripped down at the same time there’s a lot of space in the dynamics,” Atkins said. “It’s sort of what county has evolved to. And like ‘The Joker,’ ‘I’m a lover, I’m a sinner.’ It’s just real. Again, it’s not about being perfect. It’s about being human.”